Truth and Lies, Love and Death
by Dark Wings of Raven
Summary: Raven died, and she refuses to rest in peace until she can find a way to bring herself back. Unfortunately for her, a certain someone won't let her. [my first fic so dont kill me] Review please...
1. The Awakening

((disclaimer: As much as I want to, I do not own Teen Titans...yeah...))

**-Chapter One-  
**

A dark graveyard, its 'tenants' quiet in their rest, lies behind a small church. The Teen Titans were gathered around one elaborately decorated grave. All but one of them stood before it with tears in their eyes. They stood there in silence, the memories of the time each had spent with their departed comrade swirled before their eyes. Eventually, Robin looked away from the grave.  
"We have to go team. It's getting late." he said sadly, trying to hide his grief.  
"But...what about-" Starfire began but Robin interrupted her.  
"We cant do anything about it now, Star. We tried all we could but we couldn't save..." Robin's throat felt tight. He couldn't bring himself to say the name of the deceased Titan.  
"C'mon man. Let's go home." Cyborg put a reassuring hand on Robin's shoulder and led what was left of the team out of the cemetery.  
As they walked away, Beast Boy took one last look at the grave before turning away from it. "Good bye, Raven." he said quietly.

Raven's eyes opened suddenly. A bright light shined in her eyes. She lay on the cold hospital style bed that she found herself on and blinked the stars away from her eyes.  
"Well...this isn't my room, that's for sure." She sat up and looked around the room. Its walls were painted white, so was the floor, ceiling and everything else in it. She spotted a lone white-cloaked figure sitting on a chair beside the doorframe. Its face hidden in the shadow of the hood.  
"Arella? Is that you?" Raven asked curiously.


	2. Chapter 2

**-Chapter Two-**

Arella looked up.   
"My child. I am saddened by your presence here."  
"Why mother? Where am I?" Raven asked as she got off the bed and Arella stood up.  
"You are in the afterlife." Raven's mother explained, her expression unreadable. "I watched your last battle with Slade. He killed you, did he not?"  
"Yes. But mother, you said that you watched me? How?" Raven pleaded. "What happened to my friends? Did they get out alright?"  
"Yes my child. Your friends are fine. You may see them here." Arella gestured to the only window. Through its glass, Raven could see nothing.  
"What will I do? I have to know how they are." Raven said confused.  
"Think. Focus on who you want to see. Then open your eyes and look through the window. You will see your friends."  
Raven did so and she saw the rest of the Titans walking away from the cemetery. She saw Beast Boy walking behind, head down and crying slightly. She saw her own grave. A plaque that bore her name and a short dedication was engraved on the stone. Raven knew very well that underneath the stone monument was her own coffin. Instead of thinking of that further, she watched her friends.  
"I wish...I wish I can go to them again." Raven said quietly, her voice barely more than a whisper.  
"At a cost, you can my child." Arella said from the other side of the room.  
Raven snapped her head towards her mother so fast, it should have cracked a vertebrae.  
"What do you mean? I can go back? How?"  
"You can go back, but you can only go to the places you used to visit frequently and the place where you are buried. Simply walk out the door. But remember Raven, your friends might not like your return."  
Raven ignored her mother's warning and went straight for the door and past it. She found herself in Titans' Tower. Raven ran straight into the lounge room and expected the doors to slide open with a 'whoosh' but it never did. She laid a hand on the door and it went through it. Smiling slightly to herself, Raven phased through the door and saw her beloved teammates.

"I miss my dear friend Raven already." Starfire said gloomily. They were all sprawled on the couch, which now had more room due to Raven's 'absence'.  
"Yeah..." Beast Boy agreed wearily.  
"Hey guys. What's up?" Raven said in imitation of her 'happy' personality.


	3. Chapter 3

**-Chapter Three-**

It seemed that nobody heard or noticed Raven's presence.  
"Guys? Hello?" Raven said, getting slightly annoyed. After all, she didn't return from the afterlife for nothing. She stood in front of the couch, her hands on her hips.  
"Hey! I'm back!" she said loudly, trying to get their attention. She even waved her hands in the air.  
Nobody noticed. They were all staring into space. just as Raven reached out to touch somebody, _anybody_, she felt a sense of distortment. Somewhat like vertigo, and she found herself back in her 'room' in the afterlife.  
"What? Why did I leave? Why couldn't they see me?" Raven asked the first person she saw, which was Arella.  
"They are in a state of grief. And of course, you are dead. Merely a spirit when you enter the material realm." Arella explained.  
"I will find away to contact them mother. I swear it." Raven said, her eyes welling up in tears and turning her gaze to the window and watching her only friends mourn for her.


	4. Chapter 4

**-Chapter Four-**

Raven found a chair in her 'room' in the afterlife. Like everything else, it was white. She dragged the chair to the window and sat down, her hands folded on the window sill. The Titans were still sprawled on the couch in various positions. One by one, they got off and slouched to their respective rooms.  
"I should have saved her." Raven head Robin mutter to himself as he walked slowly to his room.  
"I forgive you Robin. It's okay. Don't beat yourself up." Raven whispered, half to Robin, half to herself.  
The scene in the window shifted to Beast Boy's room. Raven almost jumped in surprise. Beast Boy was crying. Raven had never before seen Beast Boy cry. Not even when Terra was turned to stone.  
"Beast Boy..." Raven whispered. She wanted to go comfort him, to make him stop crying. She got up and walked to the door from the afterlife. Arella made no move to stop her as she walked past.

Raven appeared in the Tower once again. She looked around the lounge room in a desperate attempt to contact someone, _anyone_.  
"Dreams...I think i can appear in one of their dreams..." Raven whispered to herself as she phased into the room of the first Titan she saw.  
"Starfire."


	5. Chapter 5

**-Chapter Five-**

Raven saw Starfire already asleep on her bed. Her head hanging of the edge with a puddle of tears on the floor. Her usually happy green eyes were red from crying with salt streaks from where tears have dried. Raven approached her friend carefully, not daring to wake her up, even if she _was_ a ghost. She shifted into Starfire's dream just as soon as she touched her.

"Slade!" Raven heard Robin yell. Starfire was remembering the last battle in her mind.  
"Say good bye, Robin." Slade sneered as he pressed a trigger that was connected to a bomb on the ceiling of his underground hideout.  
"No!" Raven saw herself push Robin out of the way as the bomb exploded and sent debris falling on her.  
"Raven! Raven, answer me!" Robin clawed at the rocks that entombed Raven.  
Starfire and Cyborg blasted Slade into and through a stone wall at the same time then went to join Robin and Beast Boy who were trying to free their trapped teammate. Starfire lifted one last boulder and freed Raven. But by then she was long gone. When they got her to the Tower's infirmary, Raven was beyond saving.  
"It's not too late! Your machines are wrong! She _can_ be saved...She _can_..." Starfire's rage dwindled into a sad whisper.  
"Starfire. It's okay. I'm here." The ghost of Raven whispered and tried to reach out to touch Starfire, not fully aware that she was in someone else's dream. The scene warped and shifted around her, turning into the cemetery where Raven was buried. Her friends were gathered there again, but this time, the others went away one by one until only Starfire was left. Raven did not let this chance fly by.  
"Starfire. I'm here. Don't cry." Raven said quietly and laid a hand on Starfire's shoulder. Her friend jumped back in alarm and backed away in horror.  
"Raven? But...you are dead. Slade...he killed you."  
"Yeah. I know. I saw it." Raven turned away, not wanting to let Starfire see her cry.  
"We could have saved you. I'm sorry."  
"It doesn't matter. All that matters to me is that you and the others are safe."  
Starfire merely smiled.  
"Can you please tell the others that I forgive all you guys? And that I'll be watching?"  
Starfire nodded. "Anything for you Raven. I'm just so sorry." she started to cry into Raven's shoulder. Surprised, Raven hugged her best friend.  
"I won't be able to stay long Star. Just promise me you'll tell them okay?"  
"Yes. I promise."  
Raven smiled with tear filled eyes and vanished.


	6. Chapter 6

**-Chapter Six-  
**

"Starfire...I know that you miss her. We all do but...well..." Robin started the next morning when Starfire told the others about her dream.  
"But friends...I really saw Raven! In my dream, she told me to tell you that she forgives all of us and that she will watch over us. She told me herself!" Starfire countered.  
"But that's just it Star. It was a dream." Beast Boy said wearily, almost falling asleep on a tofu waffle.  
"But it really happened. She told me herself." Starfire said again, but now she was losing confidence in whether it really happened or not. "Maybe I just dreamed it." she whispered to herself.

"They don't believe her. How could they not believe her?" Raven kept asking herself over and over while she watched her friends from her 'room' in the afterlife. "Mother, what can I do to make them believe what Starfire says is true? They couldn't even see me when I first visited."  
Arella stood up from where she was sitting on the bed. "It is good that you thought of dreams and supernatural origins, but have you tried material items?"  
"A note...how could I have not thought of that? Thank you Arella." Raven replied hastily as she ran out the door again.

"What's this thing?" Beast Boy wondered out loud. He picked up a small piece of paper. It was the note that Raven desperately left to try to contact her friends. He opened it and read it on the way to the lounge. "Hey guys! Starfire wasn't making it up! Look what i found!"  
Cyborg took the note from Beast Boy and read it aloud. "Dear friends, Starfire was not lying. I really did contact her in her dreams. I forgive you all. It wasn't your fault or Slade's that I'm gone now. But remember, I'm not resting in peace until I can find a solution to-" Cyborg stopped reading.  
"What is it? What does the rest of it say?" Robin asked from where he was seated, in front of the Titan's computer.  
"Nothing. That's it. The note stops there. But there is Raven's name where the sender's signature is supposed to be. It just looks like the last part of the letter was erased."


	7. Chapter 7

**-Chapter Seven-**

Raven didn't notice the problem with her note because she was busy in her room. Fortunately for her, her friends didn't even touch it. "Where is it, where is it, where is it!" she muttered repeatedly, searching for something in her hundreds of spell books. A tear was gathering at the corner of her eye from sheer frustration.  
"We can't have you crying now can we?" said a frighteningly familiar voice from behind Raven. She bolted upright and turned around quickly.  
"Who's there?"  
A wizard dressed in silver armor appeared from behind Raven's closet. "It is I, the Wizard Rorek. I do believe that you have read of me?"  
"I have read of both Malchior and Rorek. Which one are you really?" Raven asked suspiciously.  
"When I imprisoned Malchior the Dragon inside my enchanted book, which you now, or used to, possess," Rorek motioned to the chest where Raven had locked Malchior's prison. "I died shortly after. Since my book is indeed enchanted, I roamed these halls for years since you owned my book."  
"Why are you talking to me now?"  
"Because, my fair maiden, I am a mere spirit now. And, so are you."  
Raven turned away. "Why are you bothering me Rorek?"  
"I bother you now, as you say, because I want to help you. I erased the last sentence in you desperate note to your friends because they would not understand the power of magic needed to do necromancy. Isn't that what you wanted to try on yourself?"  
Raven was taken aback. "You read my note? _And_ you tampered with it! Why?"  
"So I can help you. It's even more boring being trapped in the spirit world forever than being trapped in an enchanted book, in my opinion." Rorek said with utmost confidence.


	8. Chapter 8

**-Chapter Eight-**

"You want to help me? Why? What's in it for you?" Raven asked Rorek, still not trusting him entirely.  
"Me? Nothing. I merely desire to help. I don't want to see such a beautiful maiden suffer for eternity knowing that I could have helped her in some way."  
That earned Raven's trust. She finally relaxed and held a book close.  
"Can you teach me what I need to know? Will it really...bring me back?"  
"If you trust me and if you are willing to learn, it will." Rorek replied, holding his hand out to Raven. She took it and for one brief moment, she felt like she could trust the fate of the whole world to this wizard. the moment didn't last long however, because she remembered what happened the last time.  
Raven accepted and trained under Rorek's guidance for the next three days. Her cloak turned a darker blue but she did not mind. Finally, she was done with her training.  
"Will it work?" she asked the wizard.  
"Only if you trust yourself."


	9. Chapter 9

**-Chapter Nine-**

"The first step is to find a body for your spirit to inhabit. In this case, you want your own body, yes?" Rorek asked Raven at the end of her training.

"Yes. I want my friends to know that it really is me." Raven replied with no emotion in her voice.

"Very well then. You have been dead for very few days. Your body should still be incorrupt even at this time." Rorek said as he led the way to the cemetery where Raven was buried. When they reached Raven's grave, she had to force herself to hold back the tears that were clouding her vision. Without a word, Rorek managed to levitate the coffin to the surface of the stone tomb and lifted its heavy cover. There, lying as still as if she was simply asleep was Raven's body. Her face was a shade paler than usual, her hair laid flat on the pillow of the coffin, her blue cloak spread around her, and her hands were clasped around her Titan's communicator. The ghost of Raven cried freely now, tears streaming down her pale cheeks.

"Now, now. How can you concentrate on your spell if you are too busy crying?" Rorek tried to soothe her.

Raven merely nodded and her eyes trailed away from the body in the coffin. "What do I have to do?" she asked, her voice a faint whisper.

"Stand in front of the casket and speak the spell that I have taught you." Rorek answered cooly.

Raven did as instructed and didn't notice Rorek moving closer to the coffin than necessary. She started chanting her new spell, finding that her powers still worked in the afterlife. "Korvus Necero Mortes!" Raven said loudly. Almost immediately, a black wave of energy enveloped the coffin, sweeping it up into the air a few feet away. It settled down again, this time on the ground in front of the grave. Raven looked around for Rorek, but found that he wasn't to be seen anywhere. "Rorek? Where are you?"


	10. Chapter 10

**-Chapter Ten-**

Raven was still searching frantically for Rorek when her own body sat up inside the coffin. Raven's body got up, stepped out of the coffin, and walked right past the space where Raven's ghost was staring blankly.  
"What? But how?" Raven said in disbelief, still watching herself walk away.  
A familiar voice laughed. It was her own. "You didn't actually think that I would pass up a chance to live again, did you?" Raven's body turned its head and stared straight at Raven's ghost. She knew at once that Rorek had betrayed her.  
"You lied to me Rorek!"  
"What did you expect? I could only do so much in a thousand years."

Back at the Tower, the alarm was going off. Robin ran to the computer to check the emergency. His face when he saw where the emergency had taken place. "Its the cemetery." he told the others. He heard Starfire gasp behind him. In the end, he sighed sadly and whispered "Titans, go."


End file.
